Thursday, 23 October 2008

Unusual Things in my Day

• After his swim class today, Jack was super excited about getting to have a play and swim with his friends in the wading pool. While I was talking the other parents the lifeguard started yelling 'get out of the water' to the kids, I ran over to make sure they were alright and it turns out that someone had done a poo in the pool *thankfully not one of mine*. Thanks Mr Lifeguard it took my boys 15 minutes to calm down and realise that you weren't yelling at them • I was sitting on the loo (should I have titled this entry as unusual toilet related things in my day?) I watched the dog walk past shake and keep walking, I looked down, looked back up and saw the dog walk past shake and keep walking. It was a very black cat matrix moment and now I'm wondering if someone is going to come and offer me a red pill green pill choice. • We went to the local RSL club for dinner *no comments please* and suddenly over the intercom a man is talking, as usual in these situation I ignore what he is saying and suddenly everyone is standing facing west and having a minute of silence. Note to self at 6pm RSL clubs have a little dedication to lost servicemen and women and it is not very *PC* to be squabbling with the kids through it. • Tried to answer an exam question where you have to pick the correct 5 answers from a possible 7 and found info on all 7 being possibly right ! So I emailed my trainer with sources of all the answers I came up with and she said that she would look into it..... I wonder how she will help me without giving me the answer

6 comments:

I've done the same thing with some of my exams :) "you're on the right track..." "We like the way you are thinking" "you are showing good researching skills and that is what we are after more than the results"

I even argued the point of a lost mark once after I provided research, and had that mark given back to me :D

Sorry, hon, sounds like poor exam setting to me. Sometimes, exam questions get away from you, but if they asked for five correct out of seven, they should have done their damndest to make sure only five were correct.

That, or said "there's more than one correct answer to this question," which is what we always have to do with editing work--because there is more than one correct way to edit work.

I have no answer for the dog thing, though. Weird.

Can we add to the strangeness of the day the fact that Blogger seems to have changed its commenting system? This is odd.

I guess since its an open book exam that the point is more about knowing you have looked over all of the material. Also since we are talking about childbirth there are few absolutes ... But I agree if this happens often then it says something about the way the exams are written.

The exams for the courses I teach are all open book, as well. Not all exams are at the university, but we see no point in forcing the students to memorise things when it's more efficient in the long run to show them how to use the resources available to them, which will help them internalise the information--far more efficient in the long run than learning by rote.

But the problem with a scenario like this is that it's potentially misleading: tell students that only five out of seven are correct, and many of them will believe it. Why wouldn't they? Not many would be as conscientious as you and look them all up.

I don't want to run the risk of making a big deal out of something that's relatively minor. I would worry if this type of pattern recurred frequently, though.

Plus, as you say, there are few absolutes in what's being assessed (and I take your word on that--I don't know, of course).